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Harness the infinite value of your company’s information

By Paul Sharman posted 01-23-2015 11:06 AM

  

The only reason we measure anything is to influence human behavior. The big question then is what should we measure? The answer in many organizations turns out to be everything. Sadly, measuring everything, especially when it causes people to focus away from what matters, can lead stakeholders to make poor decisions—and possibly endanger their organizations.

Possession of the right information, at the moment a manager needs it, provides the opportunity to make better business decisions in a timely manner. In these volatile times, not having the right information can mean that managers make poorly informed choices that leave their organizations exposed to significant risk. Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software provides critical information to decision makers when they need it.

The pace of change has accelerated dramatically in comparison to our recent history. Business volatility is a function of the frequency, magnitude, and unpredictability of change and its potential impact on the performance of any organization. Managing business performance in volatile times requires managers to access and monitor information that closely relates to their roles and responsibilities. 

Effective management begins with having a competent and robust set of strategy-focused measures and goals, which usually means that an organization has strategic directions like “satisfy customers”, “increase market share”, “provide high quality service”, and “succeed financially”. These directions lead to the creation of appropriate measurements of where the organization is presently, what it wishes to accomplish, by what deadline, and who owns responsibility. With CPM software, the organization can disaggregate strategic, high level measures and goals from the individual processes and functions that managers constantly monitor. Separating these disparate (yet interconnected) levels of insight, employees from across the company can contribute to the eventual success of the organization—assuming the originally formulated strategy was correct.

The availability of correct, timely information is central to an organization’s success in these volatile times. Informed, strategy-focused discussions and decision-making by all managers, from the top floor to the shop floor, ensures understanding and alignment. Corporate Performance Management software fuels improved decision-making with integrated financial, operational, and strategic planning, as well as performance monitoring and reporting. It also provides on-the-fly financial forecasts, simulation modeling and what-if analysis to help managers make the best-informed choices; I am working with Prophix Software Inc

Let me know if you agree with what I said. Let's start a discussion!

Paul Sharman



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